i Standards

Creating effective written maintenance standards is easier than you think. BY TODD LOWE 1 et's face it; golf courses are businesses that service thousands of customers each year. mmm Golf course superintendents are given a budget, equipment, and staff and are asked to meet or exceed customer expectations. Other successful businesses have standard operating procedures and long-range plans to improve daily operations and customer satisfaction. Likewise, golf courses should also have a set of "written maintenance standards that outline the goals and procedures for day-to-day operations. Golf course maintenance standards are guide-lines that detail the manner in which the golf course is maintained on a daily basis. They are not instruction manuals for each cultural practice or a list of job descriptions for employees, although these can be included. They are, however, formal documents that outline golf course maintenance goals and the necessary practices for meeting these goals. There are maintenance standards in place on all golf courses, but most of them are intangible guidelines, developed and implemented by the golf course superintendent. From our experience, only a small percentage of golf courses develop written maintenance standards with golfer input. Why do so many golf courses operate without any tangible guidelines? Perhaps most of us are apprehensive to step into the unfamiliar, and unless you have been involved with creating maintenance standards, it is difficult to know where to begin. Creating formal maintenance standards is not a difficult task, but it can seem intimidating at first. Aerial photographs can be taken from mobile platforms, like cherry pickers.This picture helps justify the need for irrigation upgrades